Bligh in a spin over road safety

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has taken a high-performance car for a spin to help drive home the state's road safety message.

27 December 2007

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has taken a high-performance car for a spin to help drive home the state's road safety message.

Behind the wheel of a red Holden, Ms Bligh was sent into a sideways slide during a controlled exercise at the Holden Performance Driving Centre (HPDC) in Norwell, in the Gold Coast hinterland.

The display simulated losing control of a vehicle in wet weather at 60km/h.

"We've seen a lot of deaths on our roads this year," Ms Bligh told reporters.

"While the performance in the last couple of days has been very heartening, we've seen far too many deaths this year and all of us should take this as a timely reminder to drive carefully, drive slower and don't drive under any influence."

Queensland has recorded one fatality since holidays started last Friday, bringing the state's road toll so far this year to 355.

Ms Bligh said the exercise was a "heart-stopping experience" and urged drivers to undergo defensive driving courses.

"I can very easily see how ordinary drivers like myself would panic," she said.

Ms Bligh's driving instructor Peter Bizley scored the premier a "eight or nine" out of 10 for her defensive driving skills.

Since the Christmas road safety campaign began last Friday, 153 people have been injured in traffic incidents.

Queensland police have clocked more than 12,000 speeding motorists and carried out more than 57,000 breath tests, charging 451 people for driving under the influence.

Another 182 new roadside drug tests have been performed, with results yet to be analysed.

Ms Bligh's driving exercise came as the government ramped up its ethanol awareness campaign, announcing the HPDC training car fleet and its V8 "superschool" cars had all switched to ethanol-blended fuel (E10).

"If the E10 blend satisfies the requirements of these engines, then I think we can all be very confident that all of our cars are safe to use this blend," Ms Bligh said.

The centre's chief executive Nigel Barclay said his team was happy to use E10 to support both farmers and the environment.

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The size of your tyre is located on the sidewall of your tyre.It will be similar to the sample below.